


Favor

by Cesare



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-26
Updated: 2011-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 02:23:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/156043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cesare/pseuds/Cesare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sheppard called him up and said, "Look, his girl just dumped him, and I can't be there til next week. Just... do me a favor, take him out for a couple of beers."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Favor

Cam didn't really know Sheppard all that well, but there was always that pilot kinship between them, and he respected the guy.

So he gave him a fair hearing when Sheppard called him up and said, "Look, his girl just dumped him, and I can't be there til next week. Just... do me a favor, take him out for a couple of beers. You can tell him it was my idea. I'll owe you one."

Just the request maybe wouldn't have been enough to get Cam to take Dr. Rodney "You're all ants in the shadow of my genius" McKay out to drown his sorrows. But it was also what Sheppard wasn't saying, but got across anyway: _I don't want him to be alone._ Cam had to respect that.

"Hey, doc," he said, sitting on the edge of McKay's desk. McKay didn't even squawk once, though, so it wasn't much fun. Cam hopped back up. "There's a giant basket of hot wings with my name on it at this great sports bar down the road. You in?"

McKay eyed him. "Sheppard called you."

"He might've mentioned you were the guy to see about a couple dozen wings."

"Sure," said McKay, no insults, no snap, "fine," standing up and following Cam like he was headed to his own funeral.

If he turned out to be a weepy drunk, Cam was going to tan Sheppard's hide.

He wasn't, though. McKay was subdued, which for him meant he was just a little irritating instead of a full blown pain in the ass. His table manners were a fright, but nobody was too awful tidy when they ate wings, so it didn't matter much. And his complaints about the bar, the patrons and the shitty American beer were downright neighborly compared to some of the cracks Cam had heard out of of him.

It was too bad he broke up with that pretty doctor, too, because it seemed like she'd whipped him into shape some. The guy was actually looking pretty good, which wasn't something Cam ever imagined he'd be thinking about Rodney McKay. McKay usually looked like his mama dressed him funny, but today he was just in a black t-shirt and gray pants. Cam didn't think he'd ever seen the guy in clothes that fit right before. Made a big difference.

Couple of beers made an even bigger difference. McKay was actually _laughing._ Cam couldn't remember ever even seeing him smile. His mouth was practically diagonal in his face when he grinned, but it kind of worked for him.

"You know what's so sick and hilarious about this," McKay chuckled. "Sheppard had you bring me out here to cry in my beer... Well, no one is ever, ever, ever in a million years going to believe it, but _I_ broke up with _her."_

"I believe it," Cam said. Weird thing was, he did. Every time he'd ever been around McKay, McKay was defensive, all the time, about everything. But he wasn't pulling his shoulders up tight and lashing out with his mouth now. He almost seemed relaxed.

"So how come you ended it?" Cam asked impulsively.

Maybe it'd been more than a couple of beers, or maybe Rodney was just ready to tell someone. "It turns out," he said, "if you do a little sexual experimenting, and ten, fifteen years later, you're still thinking about it every time you have sex? Maybe those weren't so much experiments after all."

Definitely more than a couple of beers, because Cam came on out and asked, "What kind of experiments?"

"The kind you guys can get fired for," said Rodney, and crossed his arms and stared like he was daring Cam to say something.

"Only if we talk about it," said Cam. Apparently he was up for this. At least parts of him were, even if the rest of him was still a little shell-shocked.

The look of surprise on Rodney's face was damn satisfying.

"C'mon," said Cam, standing and grabbing his jacket, "don't you have some experiments to get back to?"

In the morning, Cam checked his email and found one line from Sheppard: "How'd that favor go?"

Cam enjoyed the feel of a shit-eating grin spreading across his face as he snagged the keyboard and answered, "Turns out, I owe _you_ one."


End file.
